Goldy has now been apologized for this through the university spokesperson, Dan Wolter, who apologizes for any offense taken at Goldy’s mimicry of Jerome Hayes’ prayer.

Minnesota spokesman Dan Wolter says the stunt was “plainly a mistake” and the mascot didn’t intend to offend anyone or trivialize religion.

We’re all lucky this was the Golden Gopher and not the Stanford Tree. Then things really might have gotten blasphemous. Personally we don’t think there’s enough religion in football, which is why we drop at least thirty “goddammits” every single Saturday in an attempt to get him/her/it to pay attention to the damn game for a second in between all of that healing the sick, rescuing flood victims, and granting the indulgent wishes of spoiled children.